A warm & fuzzy mini documentary / public service announcement addressing the current state of our fossil fuel addiction and increased extreme planetary weather from the burning of those fossil fuels. This piece is not meant to be doom and gloom but more a highlighting of reality as we are in a global crisis with every single life support system in jeopardy. Due to the great response from SMALL WORLD ENERGY which I created in early 2011, I decided to do a part 2 and 3 in the series, this being the second chapter.

I shelved the project for quite a while thinking it would just be exactly like SWE but two things really got the ball rolling again. The first was this slightly syrupy yet ultra inspiring VIDEO regarding the Australian Youth Climate Coalition who are pushing legislators to move toward 100% renewable energy in their country. The second was the idea to add voice over this time around from hyper-genius and absolute gift from the universe Terence Mckenna. Amongst many things, McKenna was a cultural critic and has been a profound influence on my life. He always so eloquently summed up the current state of our planet and species and I can not recommend enough listening to his lectures. The particular sample from World Energy Crisis is from his EVOLVING TIMES lecture which was given in 1995.

Earth does warm and cool naturally and apparently all the planets are actually warming at this point. In addition to that natural cycle, to say pollution is good and that commoditizing all our natural resources (including people) is acceptable is completely odious. Naomi Klein has a wonderful TED TALK which brilliantly highlights why regressive heads explode over denying our impact on climate change. Because everything that's needed to fix it goes completely counter to their hyper-capitalist, hyper-consumerist, hyper-materialistic cultural programming. All of which assume and require relentless dirty resources both in terms of output and input. Business as usual.

Since the original PSA two and a half years ago, we've passed 400ppm on our carbon output and there have been regular disasters either cause by our increasingly extreme energy gathering practices or increasing extreme weather - Record heat, arctic ice melt threatening sea level rise, Alberta tar sands & Keystone XL Pipeline insanity, the Pacific garbage patch island of floating plastics, Colorado's dead beetle forests, record wild fires, hurricane sandy which could now be an annual or event bi-annual event on the east coast, Pakistani floods killing thousands, record loss of crops, bee die-offs, Fukushima Daiichi threatening the long term survival of Japan not to mention nearly irradiating the entire northern hemisphere of the planet, etc...

I'm constantly amazed how rarely I hear people talking about this defining issue of our time. Both at a professional and personal level. Of course any top down news or media source will be it's usual disappointment providing zero substantive information, with fossil fuel PR campaigns working tirelessly to extend and pretend we can do business as usual. But in social situations it doesn't compute to me why this isn't regular conversation amongst the working class. Especially people with kids. There is so much individuals can do to be part of the solution. Such as become more self-sufficient, eat less animal products, boycott all fast food, shop locally, invest in renewables on your property, don't drive as much or at all, grow your own food, etc... However, the vast majority of the problem comes from big business such as industrial agriculture. I do a lot of listening to the C-Realm Podcast, Kunstlercast, and Agroinnovations Podcast. All of which are worth every person spending their time with instead of watching tawdry garbage on TV. Those podcasts talk a lot about peak-oil and climate change and how our species seems incapable at looking further ahead then the short term. Since the current mindset still seems hellbent on burning every last drop of fossil fuel, a major positive from us potentially running out of oil is that it will likely happen before will be able to burn enough of it to permanently wreck the place. As business as usual means we might only have a hundred or two hundred years left, which in the cosmic calendar is nothing. An encouraging part of 2012 is people's consciousness shifting and I truly believe the majority of people are starting to get it. Polluters now having to look green for example is a sign the times are shifting. Even though they're usually just greenwashing in an attempt to sustain the unsustainable.

Since I consider these PSA's to just be mini documentaries, this type of project is exactly the reason why documentary filmmaking interests me. The third chapter, Future World Energy will start with our current state of renewables & permaculture which are all gaining popularity, and then get into near-future sustainables which have yet to become ubiquitous, and even some sci-fi future ideas for sustainability. Ending on a high note.